


Bookshops Are Heavenly Places

by Sesquipedalian_Bookwyrm



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: A. Z. Fell & Co., Gen, Snake!Crowley - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24456682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sesquipedalian_Bookwyrm/pseuds/Sesquipedalian_Bookwyrm
Summary: Sophie is having a very bad day. Luckily, bookshops are safe havens - and this one a little more than most.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 112





	Bookshops Are Heavenly Places

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little thing I wrote while I was having a bad day myself and wishing I could visit my favorite fictional bookshop.   
> Hope you guys like it!

Sophie was, to put it mildly, having a bad day. 

She’d had yet another interview that ended badly, her roommate had said some very snide things about the rent that was coming due, and just a minute ago her mom had called to guilt-trip her into visiting the aunt whose favorite pastime was to talk about how Sophie was out of a job while also comparing her to her cousins. 

All in all, when she got to the tube station and realized she’d lost her Oyster card and would have to walk  _ all the way home _ ...well, she considered it a rotten cherry on the top of a truly awful Tuesday. 

In a desperate attempt to avoid heading home and facing her roommate’s disdain, she added a slight detour to her path and walked in the direction of A.Z. Fell & Co.

A.Z. Fell & Co. was something akin to an urban legend in certain London circles. For one thing, it was practically  _ always _ closed. There was a sign posted that wasn’t so much ‘hours of operation’ as it was a nebulous, reluctant-sounding admission that perhaps the shop did occasionally open. And yet there were those who had claimed to have been in the store - had provided pictures, in certain cases, to prove the fact - and it sounded  _ amazing _ . A quirky bookstore full of genuinely  _ rare _ books, staffed and owned by a Victorian-looking gentleman who was a bit stuffy but had a sort of deep kindness to him. And there was just something in the way people talked about the store. 

Sophie was drawn to the store herself, and she’d never even been  _ in _ it - oh, to be so lucky - but she  _ swore _ that it always made her feel better just to be outside. She liked to fancy it was some kind of hope that someday she’d get to see it, but she really did just feel warm and happier outside the shop. And damn, did she need that today. 

Her steps sped up when she approached it, and when she turned a corner and saw it ahead, she could feel tension melting out of her shoulders. She approached the door, smiling fondly at the glass. 

And then that smile abruptly dropped off her face into an expression of pure shock - because the sign on the door said ‘open’.

She unfroze her arm and slowly reached for the handle, trying not to get her hopes up. It was probably a fluke. Today of all days, she couldn’t be this lucky. The door was certainly locked. 

The door was not locked, and Sophie moved slowly into the shop, staring around her in a daze. 

It was as lovely as she’d been told. 

Books overflowed from every surface along with odd little knickknacks. It was warm, but not too warm. Sunlight filtered through in soft, Instagram-worthy beams. And oh, it just felt so  _ safe _ . Like it was a home for every bookworm who managed to find it. 

Sophie sighed in happiness, and drifted towards a shelf. 

~

She couldn’t tell how long she’d been in the store, but the daylight wasn’t too sparse out the windows yet. She had rambled through a couple of shelves and found amazing books. She didn’t have any money to buy them, but just seeing so many books that she remembered from her childhood, or knew now, and almost all signed first editions! Oh, she loved this place. She was determined to soak up everything, because this was most certainly some sort of karmic gift for her awful day - she’d certainly never see it open again, so she had to take everything in. She had to take this lovely bookish safe feeling and fill herself up with it until it was deep in her bones, so she could always remember it. 

An overly romantic notion, she knew, but this place felt like somewhere you could indulge romantic notions. 

She’d learned in her ramblings that one shouldn’t have expectations - only the expectation of strange and interesting. The organization, if there was any, was nothing she could understand, and everything was a surprise. Still, when she turned a corner and saw a model of a very big sleek black snake coiled in the sun from a window, she started a little. 

And she started a  _ lot _ when the ‘model’ snake lazily lifted its head to stare at her. 

She blinked at it, then shrugged. Sophie wasn’t afraid of snakes - her brother had had a pet one when they were children - and she supposed it wasn’t all  _ that _ different from those sorts of bookshop cats that some places had. A little odd- but everything here seemed to be a little odd. No harm done. 

“Excuse me, Mr...er, or Mrs? Um. Apologies. Excuse me, Mx. snake. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

The snake...tilted its head at her? It seemed amused. Sophie couldn’t have said how she knew that...but this place did seem to indulge romantic notions. So she waved vaguely at the sunlight. 

“That looks lovely. I didn’t mean to disturb you - my apologies.”

She then turned and went to a different area of the shop, out of respect for Mx. Snake’s nap. 

It was ages later, when the sunlight was indicating she really  _ did _ need to go, that she finally ran into the shop’s proprietor. 

He bustled up to her as she was running a hand lovingly over a copy of Alice in Wonderland. 

“Do you like Alice in Wonderland?” The white-haired man asked. 

“It was one of my favorite books as a child. I’ve got my own copy at home - I was just admiring yours. Mr. Fell?”

He nodded. “And you are?”

“Sophie Williams. I...I love your store. I used to walk by all the time, just hoping it would be open sometime.”

“Eager to buy a book?” His expression was politely unreadable, but the question sounded oddly like some sort of test. 

She hesitated, feeling guilty. “No, unfortunately. I don’t have the money or the space, I just like the feeling of this place,” she said sheepishly. 

To her surprise, though, he looked delighted. 

“It’s lovely to meet you, Sophie. I like the feeling of this place, too.”

She smiled, feeling like she’d surprisingly passed the unknown test, before suddenly remembering that she really ought to go. 

She turned to the door, then turned back. “Oh!” She blurted, “I really like your snake!”

Mr. Fell looked slightly surprised. “Oh? ...Most hu- people are rather wary.”

She nodded. “I don’t mind snakes, my brother used to have one. And yours is quite beautiful. Um, he...or she? looked like something out of a fantasy curled up in the sun.”

“He,” Mr. Fell answered, before hesitating for a second and adding, “usually.” The look in his eyes had suddenly gone very deep, and startlingly warm. “Have a good evening, Sophie,” he said. The words sounded important somehow. Oddly sincere. 

Sophie nodded. “Thank you.”

~

Sophie was floating on clouds the rest of the evening. She found her Oyster card in her pocket when she left the shop, and managed to take the tube back to her apartment, where her roommate had already gone out for the night. And her aunt texted to say something had come up and she couldn’t see Sophie on the arranged day. 

And, to add a sweet, red cherry to an absolutely amazing Tuesday afternoon, she found something else in her jacket pocket- a small, handwritten business card with the words, “A.Z. Fell & Co. - you are welcome” on it. To say it sounded like an invitation was an overly romantic notion - but A.Z. Fell & Co. was certainly the place for that. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, comments and kudos are treasured deeply :) thanks for reading!


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